#SpeedSkating

The international Speed Skating season starts this weekend with the ISU Four Continents Championships in Hachinohe City, Japan. Located in the north of the main island of Honshu, the city will host its first ISU senior championships. Europe’s best skaters will have to be patient while home-grown aces like Miho Takagi and Tatsuya Shinhama take on superstars from across Asia, Oceania and both North and South America. 

Takagi and the American challenge

Skaters from both sides of the Pacific have already set fast times in national races early in the season. Miho Takagi won the 1000m, 1500m and 3000m at the Japanese national championships in Nagano last month, but the reigning Four Continents Champion in the 1000m and 1500m could not match the season-best times set by Dutch Jutta Leerdam (1000m) in Heerenveen and American Brittany Bowe (1500m) in Salt Lake City. 

Miho Takagi (JPN) celebrates her 1000m victory at the last Four Continents Championships in Salt Lake City (USA) © ISU

European skaters like Leerdam won’t compete in Hachinohe. Bowe will be present, but she has chosen to skate the 500m and the 1000m, leaving the 1500m to compatriots Greta Myers and Mia Manganello Kilburg, who won the 3000m and the Mass Start at the inaugural Four Continents Championships in Milwaukee in 2020. Last year Manganello Kilburg took silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 3000m at the Four Continents Championships in Salt Lake City. 

Kimi Goetz (USA) will be another rival for Takagi in the 1000m, while Olympic and reigning Four Continents champion Erin Jackson (USA) heads into the 500m as favorite having set the fastest season time in 37.50s at the Salt Lake City Olympic Oval. Last year’s bronze medalist in the shortest distance, Kim Min Sun (KOR), won the Korean national title last month but has not yet skated under 38 seconds this season.

USA teammates Erin Jackson (left) and Kimi Goetz are among the skaters to watch in the 1000m and 500m respectively © ISU

Stolz and the Japanese challenge

Where Takagi dominates the short to middle distances in the women’s field, Jordan Stolz (USA) sits in a similar position in the men’s competition. Reigning Four Continents Champion and world record holder in the 1000m, Stolz skated season-best times in the 1000m (1:07.67) and 1500m (1:43.43) at his home track in Milwaukee at the USA National Championships two weeks ago. 

Jordan Stolz (USA) is the man in form having skated season-best times in the 1000m and 1500 at the US Championships © ISU

Stolz, also reigning World Champion in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m, will face competition from Tatsuya Shinhama, who seems to be back after a couple of lackluster injury-hit years. Shinhama won the Japanese national 500m and 1000m titles ahead of a strong field which featured last year’s 500m World Cup winner Wataru Morishige and brothers and 1000m specialists Kazuya and Masaya Yamada (JPN).

Tatsuya Shinhama (JPN) saw off the challenge of a strong field to take 500m and 1000m titles at the Japanese national championships © ISU

Casey Dawson (USA) is favorite to retain his 2024 Four Continents title in the 5000m. The American has already skated an overall season-best 3000m time as well as a season-best 5000m time by a skater outside Europe.

First time for Hachinohe 

The ISU Four Continents Championships will be held for the fifth time in history, and the first outside North America after Milwaukee (2020), Calgary (2021), Quebec (2022) and, earlier this year, Salt Lake City. 

The Hachinohe Skating Arena, an indoor sea-level track that replaced the outdoor Yato City Piping Speed Rink in 2019, celebrates its first ISU senior championships after having hosted to the Japanese national championships in 2020 and 2023, and the ISU World Junior Championships last year.

All the track records at the Hachinohe Skating Arena are set by Japanese skaters, except one. In the women’s field, retired Nao Kodaira holds the 500m record in 37.66s, Miho Takagi set the 1000m (1:14.65), 1500m (1:54.07) and 3000m (4:03.48) records, while Momoka Horikawa holds the 5000m mark in 7:01.52.

Momoka Horikawa (JPN) holds the 5000m track record at the Hachinohe Skating Arena which is holding its first senior ISU event © ISU

In the men’s field Shinhama has the 500m (34.43) and 1000m (1:08.67) records, Kazuya Yamada holds the 1500m mark (1:45.57), Seitaro Ichinohe has the 5000m (6:18.53) record, while Ryosuke Tsuchiya has the 10,000m record (13:16.10). 

Norwegian Sigurd Henriksen is the only non-Japanese skater to have his name on the record board having skated the non-Olympic men’s 3000m in 3:43.12 at the ISU Junior World Cup in 2024.

ISU Four Continents Championships Program

The ISU Four Continents tournament starts with the Team Sprint followed by the 1500m for both genders on Friday. The Saturday program features the 500m for both genders, the women’s 3000m and the men’s 5000m, and on Sunday both genders will compete in the Team Pursuit and 1000m before the Championships close off with the Mass Start. 

Schedule & Where to Watch:

• Friday, November 15 - 14:00-16:22: Team Sprint Women Team Sprint Men 1500m Women 1500m Men
• Saturday, November 16 - 14:00 -17:27: 500m Women  500m Men 3000m Women  5000m Men
• Sunday, November 17 - 14:00-17:15: Team Pursuit Women Team Pursuit Men  1000m Women  1000m Men  Mass Start Women Mass Start Men

Where to Watch

For schedules and results of the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships, please visit the event’s webpage.